Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Unfortunate Bodies: 7 Unbelievable Genetic Accidents

13-inch Tailed Man (Chandre Oram - India)

With a 13-inch tail, Chandre Oram, a tea-estate worker, has become quite an object of devotion in his native Alipurduar, West Bengal and believes that Hanuman is manifest in him. "I was born on Ram Navami (birthday of Lord Ram). People have a lot of faith in me - they get cured of severe ailments when they touch my tail. I believe I can do a lot of good to those who come to me with devotion," says the man, before whom thousands of people queue up each day to seek blessings. In a corner of the courtyard of his home, Oram has set up a small Hanuman temple, where he receives offerings on Ram Navami, which he later offers to the deity.

However, because of the tail, Oram has found it difficult to get a bride. "Almost 20 women have turned down marriage proposals. They see me and agree to a match. But as soon as I turn around, they see my tail and leave. But I have decided I will marry the woman who accepts me and my tail. Or else, I'll remain a bachelor like Hanuman," he said.

Oram's family is proud of his tail and has turned down offers from doctors for its removal by surgery. "He will not survive without his tail. It has become part of his being, his existence," said Rekha, his sister. Doctors say that true tails are rare. But they are located in the coccygeal end of the vertebral column whereas Oram's tail shoots out from the lumbar region. "The coccyx is a vestige in humans and we stopped growing tails from that region a long time ago when we evolved from monkeys. Oram's case seems an aberration, an offshoot of a congenital defect," said eminent surgeon Dr B Ramana. The medical community reads the monkey man's case as a spina bifida -- a defect in the bone of the spine covered by a hole with lots of hair covering it.

Nipple on the foot (unidentified 22-year-old woman - Brazil)

The bizarre paper describing the case reads: "A 22-year-old woman sought medical care for a lesion in the plantar region of her left foot, a well-formed nipple surrounded by areola and hair. Microscopic examination of the dermis showed hair follicles, eccrine glands, and sebaceous glands. Fat tissue was noted at the base of the lesion. Clinical and histopathologic findings were consistent with the diagnosis of supernumerary breast tissue, also known as pseudomamma. To our knowledge, this is the first report of supernumerary breast tissue on the foot."

World's Largest Hand (Lui Hua - China)

Lui Hua suffers from a rare condition known as macrodactyly. When he was hospitalized in Shanghai on July 2007, his left thumb measured 10.2 inches and his index finger measured close to 12. On July 20 surgeons undertook a seven-hour operation to reduce the size of Liu's fingers and thumb. Doctors removed 11 pounds of flesh and bone in the procedure. A second surgery is scheduled to take place. Enlarged limbs can be caused by a number of medical conditions. Lymphedema is perhaps the most common cause and results in some extraordinarily enlarged limbs.

Frog-like Baby (unidentified baby - Nepal)

On 2006, this bizarre-looking baby was born in Charikot, the headquarters of Dolakha district, attracting a huge number of onlookers to witness the astonishing sight.

The neck-less baby with its head almost totally sunk into the upper part of the body and with extraordinarily large eyeballs literally popping out of the eye-sockets, was born to Nir Bahadur Karki and Suntali Karki at the Gaurishnkar Hospital in Charikot. The Karki couple is a permanent resident of Dolakha's Bhirkot VDC.

The bizarre baby, however, died after half an hour of its birth, Suntali, the mother, informed. It was taken to the hospital after its death. The news about such a baby being brought to the hospital spread like wildfire and there were hundreds gathered at the hospital to have a look. The police had to be deployed to control the crowd.

The baby weighed 2kg at birth and was born after the normal nine-month gestation period. Suntali, already a mother of two normal daughters, was not suffering from any illness during the pregnancy. Nir Bahadur, the father, says he does not feel any remorse for the newly-born baby's death. "I am happy that nothing happened to my wife," he said.

NOTE: Our readers, Becca and Andrew, report us that "the baby has a condition called anencephaly, a neural tube defect (like the cyclops baby), with no proper brain formation. The baby would have died a few days later. That's why women are advised to take folate in early pregnancy." --Thank you!

Feet facing backwards (Wang Fang - China)

Wang Fang, 27, of Chongqing city in China, was born with her feet facing the wrong way. She has learned to live with her condition without problems and recently refused a disability pension by being classified as disabled. "I can run faster than most of my friends and have a regular job as a waitress in the family restaurant. There is no reason to class me as disabled."

Cyclop Baby (unidentified baby - India)

On 2006, this baby was born with a only one eye in India. Medical staff who helped deliver the child believe that the child's condition was caused by an experimental anti-cancer drug. Another cause written in the report by the hospital was that it could also be the result of a chromosomal disorder. The child was diagnosed with a rare chromosomal disorder, known as cyclopia. She was born with a single eye in the center of her forehead, no nose and her brain fused into a single hemisphere. With such severe deformities, it was a miracle that the girl survived even a few minutes after delivery. The baby died days later.

Baby with Three Arms (Liu Junjie - China)

This 2-month-old baby named Liu Junjie from Anhui Province, China, was born with a third arm on 2006. Doctors successfully removed the extremely rare and well-developed third arm, but the baby required long-term physical therapy to gain function in his remaining hand, which has no palm and flexes in either direction. "We're hoping to exchange information with doctors who've dealt with similar cases anywhere in the world," said Chen, head of the orthopedics department at Shanghai Children's Medical Center. "This is so rare that we have virtually no information to go on."